Deadly Escape

By: Colleen Helme

Narrated by: Wendy Tremont King

Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

Book 11 in the Shelby Nichols Adventure series

How many times can a person escape death? Shelby Nichols may be one lucky gal, but this time, her luck is about to run out.

Working for a mob-boss has danger written all over it, but when an escaped convict with a lust for revenge goes after him, it’s up to Shelby and her mind-reading skills to keep Uncle Joey alive.

Not only that, a federal agent from her past has an agenda with her name on it, and he won’t take no for an answer. What’s a mind-reading soccer mom to do? If you’re Shelby Nichols, you jump in with your mind wide open and hope for the best.

©2018 Colleen Helme (P)2018 Colleen Helme

Another adventure of the mind reading soccer mom!

DEADLY ESCAPE is Book 11 in the Shelby Nichols Adventures series of light and fun suspense thrillers by author Colleen Helme. Actually this novel is heavier/more suspenseful than any other novels in the series. I've reviewed the first 10 books in the series and rated each of them 5 stars. DEADLY ESCAPE may be the best yet. For the most part the author tells her stories in the first person of protagonist Shelby Nichols; narrator Wendy Tremont King is Shelby's voice and she is wonderful.

Colleen Helme deserves a lot more attention as a very talented author. This series reminds me of the Miss Fortune Mysteries series by Jana DeLeon. I RECOMMEND the Shelby Nichols Adventures series without reservation.

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

Shelby is needed in Prime Time!

If this could be a television series, if you could creatively show a character “reading minds”, this series would replace Castle as my favorite. Yes, Shelby and I have similar TV taste. I absolutely love this series and all of its characters! This new installment in the life and times of Shelby Nichols brings so much action and adventure, but this just provides an exciting foil for the growth and development of the characters and their relationships with each other. I can’t wait for ITALY! Thank you Colleen Helme!

PS. A great shout out to Wendy Tremont King for bringing these characters to life with her wonderful performances! Love you too!

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Just gets better !

This particular series has captivated my coworker & sister as well as myself. This one was a twofer in a way & leaves us in anticipation w/o being a cliffhanger for the next book. Love Colleen Helme’s way of doing her stories & the narrator is spot on ! Thank you lady, good as gold, please keep writing !

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

loved it!!!!!!

Once again we see Shelby saving the world and uncle Joey with yummy Ramos by her side. I love these books they keep getting better and better!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

High Octane adventure with Shelby Nichols-Awesome!

The audible version of Deadly Escape, the 11th volume of the Shelby Nichols adventures was without doubt the best one to date.

As I have mentioned previously, the narration by Wendy Tremont King has literally embodied Shelby and cohorts, and to me Wendy IS Shelby Nichols.

Wendy has continuously improved over the volumes that she has narrated. There were many subtle nuances in and variations in the voicing of various characters and their roles in this book, and it really came to the fore in Deadly Escape and made listening to the story all the more realistic. An example of this is Josh, Shelby’s son, sounding like Chris, but younger, and more boyish. There were real differences that you could hear between Uncle Joey and Ramos, Jackie and Shelby, and other male and female characters. That’s hard to pull off, so kudos to Wendy for making the story all that more absorbing and realistic and enjoyable!

Shelby’s in a lot of trouble in this book. Uncle Joey has personality disputes and fighting over a girl to contend with in his organization. But overshadowing all is the threat of him being killed by an old associate who has escaped out of jail and has a vendetta against Manetto, and wants him dead! At any cost! Is his innocent-seeming daughter involved too? You’ll have to listen to find out!

Literary artist Colleen Helme is not content with just one plot, subplot, or many twists, bringing characters we have known and met before into the story, including characters from Paris, a terrorist, an old love interest of Ramos and the head of the FBI. Can Shelby handle it all? Can she stay in one piece?

Things get really complicated when even her kids are involved, husband Chris is attacked, and may not survive, and Shelby is closer to death – over and over - than she has ever been before. It’s a race against the clock, a standoff with Federal Marshalls, rivalry with the Police, and Uncle Joey in the cross-hairs.

There is more threatening Shelby in this one book than I think we have ever seen before in a single Shelby Nichols adventure. From the queen of close calls, we get within seconds of death, over and over again in this incredibly high octane adventure from bestselling author Colleen Helme.

Shelby gets more mature in every volume. She is more accepting of her talents, though as she adjusts to them she seems to make more slips by answering people’s thoughts, not what they’ve said in this book. More by far than any previous volume. But she is turning her powers to her advantage and purposely using them to help more people in more ways. She is rapidly coming to accept where life has delivered her as a soccer-mom turned investigative consultant who works for both the Police AND a Mob Boss.

There’s one thing I can say with a certainty about this book: You’ll love it!

I highly recommend Deadly Escape without reservation. It works as a standalone novel, but you should definitely go ahead and treat yourself to the whole series. You’ll get to know and love (and hate) the characters and being part of Shelby’s evolution as a person in a very unique situation is worth every penny of the cost of these books. They are gripping, exciting, page-turning fun reads!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Entertaining as always!

This is my favorite series to listen to! Shelby’s adventures are comical and thrilling! I also admire her restraint and morals when it comes to resisting Ramos! The only bad thing about finish a book is the wait for the next one.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Wonderful series

I have loved every book in this series. Can't wait for the next. I use audible to listen while I work.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Another winner

I always enjoy listening to another one of Shelby Nichols’ adventures. Colleen Helme crafts her mysteries with laugh out loud moments and enjoyable characters. Wendy Tremont King always give great performances as she brings it all to life.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

WOW ANOTHER GREAT ADVENTURE<br />

Luv the Shelby Nichols Series. The adventures are so good, listened to the whole story in one day. The books just keep getting better. Can't wait for next book.
The Narrator is great. She does great on all the character voices. You won't fall asleep.
Worth the credit or money.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Like to Listen at 1.25

I've been a Shelby fan since Carrots. I wanted something that took the place of Stephanie Plum when I stopped reading Evanovich. I needed a new source of mystery chic-lit. Shelby Nichols and her mind-reading ways fit the bill. While I find the situations Shelby gets into unrealistic, the story - overall- is usually entertaining. I enjoy that Shelby's character has evolved throughout the series; straddling both sides of the law working for a mob boss as well as the police & other authorities (FBI, etc.). She does so with a sense of her own morals and ethics in mind, not just what everyone else expects her to do. I notice her children are being featured less and less; her husband Chris when situation-worthy. Otherwise, we mostly deal with Shelby, Ramos, Uncle Joey, Dimples, and an assortment of <i>guests & criminals</i>. Shelby falls into danger, Ramos (universally sexy, hot, but she can't have him hitman), swoops in to save the day, rinse/repeat/ride the motorcycle. It's fun, she's sweet, with sprinkles of mob-drama.

I think Wendy Tremont King does a fantastic job, but I can't listen on the standard 1x. It seems paced a hint too slow with the length of pauses and breaths. 1.25x doesn't distort, it just eliminates the slightly longer gap that perhaps is noticed by and only annoys me. Great series. Will likely continue to listen.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A fantastic series!

Wendy Tremont King brings the characters to life in this exciting episode of The Shelby Nichols Adventure series. I highly recommend it!

Great entertainment

5* narration 4 1/2* story. Psychic, investigative, humour, probably most enjoyable for a female audience. This escapist fun continues to be the type of great entertainment that's guaranteed to get me out of any book slump. Griping action one minute and gentle humour the next with the narrator playing it for all it's worth and making a difficult job look easy. The story is brilliant either way but you are missing out if you don't get the audio on this one.